A Dream within a Dream

As I drift off to sleep, I have a dream within a dream that sticks out more than the others. I know I’ve been having dreams up until this point, but this one was a normal. Well, sort of normal, anyways. I’ve never had one like it before, so I guess it would be abnormal. Like the others I’ve been having, I wonder if it will tell me a little something about what’s to come.
In the dream, I was at the circus. But, it wasn’t a normal circus that you would take the whole family to. Sure, there was the whole big top tent and a few different areas set up for acts to be performed, but this one seemed a little more demented. Nothing was as wholesome as it should be. I think the only half way normal thing in the whole place was the crappy music playing in the background. If you listened, you could make out the usual notes through the distortion.
Walking into the main area, I realize that I am looking over people from at least five feet above their head. It’s not that I’m floating, or even flying, but more like I’m just bigger than they are. My body feels heavier than normal as well. I think I may be an animal of some sort. The only large animal I can think of at a circus would be an elephant.
Entering the center of the ring, a group of people stand in a large circle and greet me with less than caring faces. A roar comes over me as my trunk flies up in front of my face. I know what they have planned for me, and I feel very scared. I turn to escape their murderous gaze, but find that they have me surrounded on all sides.
The first man to come forward and stand before me is a half painted clown. He has the bottoms of a clown suit on, a white undershirt and shoes a normal person would wear. His face is what caused me to roar with fright. He didn’t look like the normal clowns that I’m used to seeing in this place, and I am very frightened.
His eyes were narrow, like the ones you see in those cartoons that mean he’s an evil person, and they seemed to touch in the middle. The lower half of his face was also very wrong. He had a clown nose, but there was no skin or anything else covering his face. He looked like a skeleton face with sharpened teeth that dripped with blood. I knew he meant me harm, but there was nowhere for me to escape. As I looked around at the others that surrounded me, they all turned into a similarly frightening clown.
Outside the circle, and standing on a pedestal, stood the ringmaster. He was wearing his usual, overly boisterous, outfit: a large top hat and suit that seemed too big. He seemed to chuckle his usual laugh as I looked to him for any kind of help. He just stood there, smoking his pipe and watched as the clowns drew closer and closer around their prey.
That’s when they struck. That first clown unrolled his long whip and struck the ground a few times to test it. The thing wasn’t a normal whip, just like everything else in this place wasn’t normal. It was made entirely out of human bone, possibly the backbone of the person they hurt before me.
“Have at it, young man!” The ringmaster yelled, which prompted the clown to wind the whip back and start striking me on my trunk. The bone the thing was made of cut deeply into my flesh with every strike, causing me to scream out in agonizing pain.
The others started striking me with their whips a moment after the first one did, cutting at my legs and sides until I fell to my knees. The pain was too unbearable and I could no longer stand without shaking uncontrollably. Unfortunately, falling was what they wanted me to do. Just as soon as I fell on my side, they began striking the underside of my stomach with all of their whips at once.
Eventually, my stomach was so cut up that I was numb from the pain. That was when they dropped the whips and started using their hands. They were pulling, tearing and ripping at my skin so that they could get at my insides, exposing what was held in place. The whole thing was painful, excruciatingly so, but there was nothing I could do to stop them except scream in pain.
By the time they tore a big enough hole to get at my insides, I was barely conscious. It was surprising that I was still alive after what they just did to me. No normal creature could last this long without succumbing to their injuries, but for some reason I was still clinging to consciousness.
Stopping abruptly, they began to separate down the middle, creating a path for the ringmaster to walk through. It was him that they worked so hard to please, and it was him that would get to enjoy their handiwork first. Reaching inside, he pulled hard until my still beating heart rested in his hands. With a smile that revealed row upon row of sharpened teeth, he opened wide and bit my heart in half. As he chewed, a look of near ecstasy filled his features. He enjoyed his meal, and savored every single bite.
As he finished, he wiped his mouth with his handkerchief like he was at a fine dining restaurant and he had just finished a delicious meal. Putting the handkerchief away, he turned and walked away. This was the signal for the others to finish what was left of me. They seemed to be ravenous as they crowded around my open stomach. They tore out my innards like a furious storm that unleashes a tornado over an unsuspecting home.
By the time they finished, I was hollow and dead and they were full beyond being stuffed to the brim. One by one, they all began to moan from being so full. They couldn’t stand anymore, so they either sat or lay down on the ground before they seemed to start writhing in pain. I was no longer in my body, but looking over them from above. As I watched, they seemed to look like dogs rolling around on a very nice carpet.
In an instant, the evil clowns began to laugh just before their stomachs burst from being over stuffed. All their innards began shooting from their stomachs: intestines full of my flesh shot out like party favors, blood spurted across the floor like it had somewhere to go, piss and shit seemed to flow freely from their lower extremities. Their bodies seemed to be expelling everything in a matter of moments and didn’t stop until every last one of them was completely empty.
Walking through the bodies, the ringleader seemed to start dancing a jig. He began dancing faster and faster, laughing as he went. Before he got halfway through the gore at his feet, he threw himself to the floor and started laughing hysterically. I couldn’t do anything but focus in on this man. As I hovered over him, his laughing got worse, until his heart finally gave out and he died with the look of someone possessed by laughter. As I attempt to reach out and touch him, his body spasms and shocks me out of my dream.